So this week I'm visiting Huntsville (apparently pronounced hnnnnntsvuuuulllll), Alabama for work. Every time I visit somewhere I think of it as a residence in that when I'm there I think of what it would be like to live there. Last year I visited Corvallis, Oregon and the Oregon coast. I thoroughly enjoyed it, I would like living anywhere in Oregon. Too many hippies for my tastes but enough bike trails to hide from them all. Well I wrote that to lead to this, I will never, ever, ever live in Alabama. How can I include all of Alabama. Well, I learned that Huntsville is considered the "sophisticated" part of Alabama. Whoa. Not that it's all bad or anything but it's just more different than I expected. Before coming I joked around that no one would know what I was (ethnically speaking) but I never believed that would be true. But here I am and everyone acts as though it's the first time that anyone's ever seen my last name. You should have seen the puzzled look on the cop looking at my driver's license after stopping me as I was walking into a convenience store, he asked if I had any warrants out and what I was doing before frisking me and pulling out my wallet. True story, Kim was on the phone with me at the time and heard the whole thing, she was all ready to call the ACLU (of all things for me). Just kind of a strange place. Anyway, some random observations on my trip so far...
Whitesburg, AL. Quite fitting...
You know you're having a bad day when the traffic is to long at the ATM machine so you skip, being late to the airport, then the ATM at the airport is out of order as you're about to fly to a state without the bank you use. Seriously, no Wells Fargo.
What's this weird wetness? No rain but in the afternoon it feels as though there's a drop of rain hitting my forehead every once in a while.
There are a lot of poor speakers out there, this is supposed to be a modeling and simulation conference yet often I'm embarrassed by how people are supposed to be professionals present themselves.
Most popular restaurant types in Huntsville, pizza followed by taco places. Weird, there's even a place called "The Latino Quarter", stopped by and everything was three pesos (ba da dum!). Not brave enough to try tacos at a place called Humpfries's though.
No bus routes in the city apparently, only downtown. I walked about two miles to a grocery store to grab some things and get some cash.
Next time, get a rental car. My company only allows one for the trip and the older co-worker I'm with got it first and you know about the hell involved in adding a second driver.
New rule should be separate rental cars if the two people are 20 years apart.
When visiting a city without your home bank, remember to take more than fourteen dollars.
Well, back home Friday.
2 comments:
Dude, I'm sorry you had to experience that (with the cop). It really pisses me off when I defend the folks down south from charges of racism and I hear something like this. When Nicolette spent some time in the FL panhandle, she was working with her coworker, also a dark Mexican girl. Her coworker actually experienced it - she was refused service at a department store, and the associate immediately helped a white lady. Fortunately Nicolette didn't experience anything, otherwise I would have personally driven myself there and kicked somebody's racist rear.
I still have the opinion that racism in the south is confined to insulated pockets, and only in the states where nobody wants to live anyway (AL, MI, LA) due to the grinding poverty and crappy schools. Nicolette and I spent a week in TN for Shawn's wedding and we loved it - the people were sooooo friendly, even (especially) in small podunk towns where you'd expect us (especially Nic) to have problems due to the hue of our skin. I'm sorely disappointed that there are still people ignorant enough to treat people poorly due to skin color, but, what can you do? Let them live their lives, but don't live anywhere near them.
Anyway, this is the reason Nicolette and I love the west - the west including every state west of the Mississippi. Everyone is exactly like us, very individualist, self-sufficient, and friendly - with nary a care of who you are and what your last name is.
Good luck in Huntsvull homes.
Reminds me of the time we went into the Lexus dealership in our t-shirts and basketball shorts...
Well, without the "warrant" part...
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